Michigan House Bill HB4954

Michigan 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 9/16/25
• Refer: 9/16/25
• Report Pass: 3/17/26

Caption

Higher education: financial aid; eligible recipients of the police officer's and fire fighter's survivor tuition grant; expand to include medical examiners and medical examiner investigators. Amends title & secs. 1, 2, 3 & 4 of 1996 PA 195 (MCL 390.1241 et seq.).

Summary

HB 4954 expands Michigan’s survivor tuition grant program, which currently covers children and surviving spouses of police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty, to also include children and surviving spouses of Michigan medical examiners. The bill amends the act’s title and definitions to add “Michigan medical examiner” and “medical examiner investigator” to the list of covered public safety professionals, and it updates related references throughout the statute so the program applies to all three groups. Under the bill, eligible students may receive tuition grants at state public institutions of higher education for undergraduate coursework, subject to existing program rules. The grant amount remains limited to eligible tuition minus other gift aid, and students must meet residency, enrollment, academic progress, age, and credit-limit requirements. The Department of Treasury administers the program, while the Department of State Police continues to verify that the death was the direct and proximate result of a traumatic injury incurred in the line of duty before a grant may be awarded.

Impact

The bill amends 1996 PA 195, the Police Officer's and Fire Fighter's Survivor Tuition Grant Act, to broaden eligibility and rename the program accordingly. It changes statutory definitions, eligibility language, and administrative provisions so that medical examiners and medical examiner investigators are treated the same as police officers and firefighters for purposes of survivor tuition grants. The bill would affect the Department of Treasury, the Department of State Police, state institutions of higher education, and surviving spouses and children of covered decedents.

Sentiment

The available context suggests generally favorable treatment of the bill, as its purpose is to extend an existing educational benefit to another public safety profession closely tied to death investigations and line-of-duty service. No committee transcript or vote record was provided, so there is no documented opposition or recorded vote pattern in the supplied materials. The bill caption frames the change as an expansion of eligible recipients rather than a redesign of the program.

Contention

The main policy issue is the scope of eligibility: the bill adds medical examiners and medical examiner investigators to a benefit previously limited to police officers and firefighters. Any contention would likely center on whether those positions should be treated as equivalent public safety roles for survivor benefits, and on the fiscal impact of adding new potential recipients. The bill also preserves the existing requirement that the Department of State Police determine whether the death was caused by a traumatic injury incurred in the line of duty, which may be a point of administrative scrutiny but not a stated controversy in the provided record.